Wordless Wednesday: this is *real* Austin

 

21st-century playgrounds

Like many, many things that have changed since I was a kid, playgrounds....wow!

the blogger on unsafe jungle gym
circa. 1955

It's one (of the many) perk of having grandchildren: you get to explore these fantastic (and much safer) play spaces. And I've gotten to see many variations over the past seven years or so. 

But the playground at Austin's Walnut Creek Park is one of the most amazing, in my admittedly limited experience. The super treehouse you see at the top of the post is the centerpiece, and, no, I did not go down the incredibly long and twisting tunnel slide. But I did let my four-year-old granddaughter talk me in to climbing up to the top platform. Which is not straightforward; there are steps for a short while, but then you have to climb up short climbing walls to the next stages. Whew! It was a workout!

Here is a closer look at the top sections:

And that's not all that was unusual about this place. The swings, admittedly, aren't that odd, although there is a two-seater of a design new to me. Unfortunately, old-age middle-ear issues didn't let me go as high as my two-year-old partner wanted to.

But this is a merry-go-round setup that I hadn't seen before. Much safer than those engines of terror that I remember from girlhood, but still subject to issues when little kids are pushed faster than they like by bigger ones. An interesting concept, though:

You might notice that neither of my sensibly cautious grandchildren are in this picture, which is one of frightened tears waiting to happen.

There is a less intense area for smaller kids, and we did spend some time there, but I have no photos, sorry.

However, I have one more cool, and possibly unique, feature of this place to show you.

A more rustic (and closer to the ground) version of the big treehouse is this fun structure. In the picture excited granddaughters (who have been here before with their nanny) are leading Mom and Gramma. The colorful roof is made out of smashed cans...a wonderful example of upcycling:

The park as a whole (as you can see in the link above) is enormous and has miles of hiking and biking trails (some of which are—much to my daughter's disapproval—dogs-off-leash areas) and some sports fields. But the playground provided enough entertainment for our morning. And a stellar addition to my growing collection of up-to-date playgrounds I have experienced.

Wordless Wednesday: sad anniversary coming up

 

Ice consequences

Every street I drove down in Austin last week had piles like this, although not all were as massive...

This was the aftermath of the big ice storm that hit A-town, cracking tree limbs all over town and keeping some folks in the dark and cold for as long as days. Sally's family only lost power for four hours, one of the lucky ones, but she said the house got pretty cold.

Fortunately for us, the temperatures where we live never quite got below freezing (plus we didn't have as much rain to freeze). But some folks in Austin got hit hard.

Here's what's left of a really big tree that just came up out of the ground in the Rosedale neighborhood, and had to be dismembered:

Playgrounds weren't spared either; so glad school was cancelled so that no kiddos were standing in the wrong place at the wrong time!

And I expect I'll still see effects of this nasty weather when I go back next week. But I hope they will have taken care of the huge limb hanging by a thread that you can see in the red box here:

You don't want to be anywhere near when that big boy comes down!

Wordless Wednesday: the ants go marching two by two...

 

Wordless Wednesday: run for your lives! it's the Protomolecule!

 

Wordless Wednesday: big shoes to fill

 

All things botanical, Part 2

 

Eagle eyes will note that the above is not a shot of the San Antonio skyline. Yes, other cities have botanical gardens, too!

I do have more to show you about our local center, but I recently visited Austin's, and found it different, but just as nice.

I think it's actually been around longer than ours, and while not quite as extensive, the maturity of its landscape and hardscape leads to its distinctiveness. Not to mention a couple of unique (or at least not represented in SA's garden) features:

One of the garden's bonsai trees...
Cedar elms! like, and unlike, what we have in our front yard

Dino garden!

The "dinosaur garden" not only featured the cute sculpture you see above, but the plants in the area were mostly primitive as well. Visitors thereby get an idea of what kinds of flora those ancient fauna might have been familiar with. An example is at the right. 

Quite an imaginative and lovely space, which also has an impressive waterfall.

We were lucky with the weather for our visit, as it was overcast and a little cool, but I suspect this garden might be visitable even when the temps get summery, since most of its paths are so shaded.

I have to add a couple of lovely shots I took during another Austin excursion, to another garden. This was the Mayfield Park and Preserve, otherwise known as the peafowls' hangout. Unfortunately they weren't posing for me this day, but you can see some pretty spectacular photos of them at the link above. I'll just show you a couple of flower pix:

their lily ponds are wonderful

fabulous amaryllis!

Wordless Wednesday: every which way

 

Wordless Wednesday: Color TV AND Catfish!

 

Wordless Wednesday: Texas state small mammal sighting

Odd, if not downright weird

Apologies for the lengthy blogging hiatus. I spent most of January entertaining—and being entertained by—my two lovely New England granddaughters, and just didn't have time for anything else.

One of the highlights of their stay was a week spent in Austin where they were able to play with their cousin. And while we were there we took lots of walks. Which, in Austin, always present lots of photo opps of interesting oddities, especially in a transitional neighborhood like the one where we stayed.

Many older houses in this area are being replaced by swanky (one assumes) and architecturally interesting duplexes like the one above.

But there is still plenty of old, quirky Austin around, too. Like houses with enormous rain barrels...

...guarded, it would seem, by watch-dinosaurs?

And since it wasn't long after Christmas when we visited, there were still some yard decorations up...

I so very much miss the Calvin and Hobbes comic when I see exhibits like this, don't you?

Of course, not every house is weird. Some are just cheerfully neat...

It hadn't been that long since my last stay in A-town, but our daughter's neighborhood is changing rapidly. Most of the changes are welcome, like all the eateries that are now within walking distance for them. 

Here's a sample of the fare at one of them, pretty much heaven on earth for a biscuit-lover such as myself...

Bird Bird Biscuit...an asset to any neighborhood

We spent some time downtown, too. I'm sure I've snapped this off-kilter skyscraper before, but thought I'd include a new view of it here. We call it the Jenga building...

...which I thought was an original moniker courtesy of our kids, until I read the link above. I also learned it's the tallest building in town.

One of the absolutely quirkiest things we saw, especially considering it was 75° when it was operational, was an ice skating rink on the roof of Whole Foods. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of it that day, but when we returned a couple of weeks later, I guess they'd given up on it...

My Maine visitors were pretty critical of the surface when people were skating on it, seeing as how there was essentially a puddle of water over the entire surface. I mean, they can skate on the pond near their house with much less fanfare and on better ice.

But wouldn't you know Austin had to try something this weird...

A weekend with Lady Bird, part 2

My second encounter with the legacy and memory of Lady Bird Johnson, while in Austin recently, was at a place that I'm ashamed to say I had never visited before: The Wildflower Center in south Austin.

It's a little out of the way and it seems that a visit there just never had fit in with our Austin plans. But fortunately the group of women I was meeting this time had a place for it on the schedule and I was so happy to finally get to see it.

Perhaps a little late to see the big stars—bluebonnets and such—there were still plenty of lovely sights, and some quite unexpected. Like the newly fledged, and still fuzzy-feathered, owlet that our guide was able to show us. You can see him/her perched on left.

The Center also has a great family area with plenty of cool things for kids to see and interact with, like water features decorated with these amazingly-porous hunks of limestone...

...and culminating in a waterfall that can be walked behind...

I liked this handsome interactive Fibonacci spiral sculpture...

...which is there to show kids and their parents how this mathematical concept relates to the growth of flowers nearby...

Here are a few other snaps of interesting scenes at the Center...

verbena were looking lovely

I don't think you can find a tree with a more beautiful trunk than a madrone

the Center's buildings blend attractively with their natural setting

what else would you expect in a Wildflower Center loo?

In spite of the somewhat alarming signage spotted occasionally, our visit came off with incident or injury and was most enjoyable. I'd like to return at another season!

Wordless Wednesday: well, yeah!

A weekend with Lady Bird: part 1

When I lived in Austin, 'way back in the last century, this lovely body of water running through the heart of the city was just called Town Lake. Soon after she died in 2007, however, it was renamed for this First Lady, an early champion and advocate for environmental issues. A couple of weekends ago I was able to enjoy both the lake and another Austin attraction named for her; I'll tell you about that one next time.

But first, the lake. Longtime readers (and those who've seen my London blog) might remember when I've written about the very pleasant walk you can take around a good-sized chunk of lakefront. But the last time I took that walk was an astonishingly long time ago.

This time, the occasion was an annual get-together of a group of Rice women who graduated around the same time as myself (also far back in the mists of time). They meet every spring in a different Texas city and getting together for a weekend of visiting, touristing, eating, and drinking with these delightful ladies is quite fun. This year the meeting place was Austin, and one of the activities was a walk around part of Lady Bird Lake.

As you can see, we were very lucky with the weather. It was even cool-ish when we started the walk by crossing over Barton Creek...

Then upstream to the MoPac expressway, where there's conveniently a pedestrian walkway tucked underneath. (There's a great view of the downtown skyline from here; you can see it above.) 

This was really my old stomping grounds, since I lived in an apartment very near the then-brand-new MoPac, on 6th Street ('way before 6th Street was cool). 

Our trail took us—and large numbers of Austinites out for walks and runs—back towards downtown and the pedestrian bridge that was new when I saw it back in 2011. On the way we walked under the Lamar Street bridge...

...which we could look back to as we crossed on the pedestrian bridge...

These were only two of the many, many watercraft out taking advantage of the great weather and lack of wind on the lake this Saturday. I've actually paddled on the lake myself, again back in 2011. We went upstream to the next bridge where the enormous bat colony lives and waited for the bats to emerge at dusk. (You can read about this adventure here.)

This time the scenery was much less eventful, but still quite enjoyable. Especially when coupled with good visits with friends new and old.

fun Sunday brunch at Mi Madre's

Next up: Lady Bird's truest obsession...wildflowers!